NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Early predictions for this year's TV-upfront market are grim. The betting on Wall Street is that the broadcast networks will see a 10% to 20% decline from the about $9.23 billion in commitments from marketers secured last year, which could mean the networks will be lucky to notch a take between $7.4 billion and $8.2 billion.

That would be quite a cut -- and would mark the first serious decline in upfront dollars since the economic downturn of 2001. That year, the broadcast networks secured around $6.7 billion in upfront commitments, according to Advertising Age -- noticeably down from estimates for 2000 that range from $7.8 billion to $8.3 billion.